4 ms·

It's hard to love software that is an organ of a remote rent-seeking entity which is free to change the software- or its terms of use- at any time.

akira2501 2y ago
Well thankfully the market has moved _well_ past that point. :|
- immibis 2y ago
  We still use Chrome, don't we?
robertlagrant 2y ago
Where is the rent-seeking happening?
- fragmede 2y ago
  Charging for Photoshop as a SaaS product
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    Okay, but where's the rent seeking?
    - fragmede 2y ago
      They could sell me Photoshop version 2024, and I could pay them $600, and just use that for the next 20 years. Instead, I'm being sold Photoshop: cloud edition for $50/month, for forever. I don't actually own my copy of Photoshop that I'm giving them money for, I'm renting it from them. Photoshop is Adobe's product, so they get to charge for it however they please, but that's textbook rent-seeking. You could argue that they're improving Photoshop and deserve the rent, but what if I don't want those new features and I'm happy with Photoshop 2024, but regardless of that, I'm still only renting Photoshop (and the rest of the suite) from them these days.
      - robertlagrant 2y ago
        Textbook rent-seeking is convincing a government official to make it law that people use your service. Rent-seeking isn't "charging rent" or "charging a subscription".
tombert 2y ago
I don't really think it's that hard at all. When I discovered Flash I was a literal child (12 years old), so it's not like I was reading license agreements regardless, but even if I were an adult, I could still enjoy the software simply because it's fun to use. I certainly don't have many nice things to say about Adobe as a company, I hate that they moved to a subscription model, and I hate that they didn't open source Flash Player, guaranteeing an expiration date on the tech, but that really doesn't detract from how much I really enjoyed using the software.

akira2501 2y ago

Well thankfully the market has moved _well_ past that point. :|

immibis 2y ago
We still use Chrome, don't we?

robertlagrant 2y ago

Where is the rent-seeking happening?

fragmede 2y ago
Charging for Photoshop as a SaaS product
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  Okay, but where's the rent seeking?
  - fragmede 2y ago
    They could sell me Photoshop version 2024, and I could pay them $600, and just use that for the next 20 years. Instead, I'm being sold Photoshop: cloud edition for $50/month, for forever. I don't actually own my copy of Photoshop that I'm giving them money for, I'm renting it from them. Photoshop is Adobe's product, so they get to charge for it however they please, but that's textbook rent-seeking. You could argue that they're improving Photoshop and deserve the rent, but what if I don't want those new features and I'm happy with Photoshop 2024, but regardless of that, I'm still only renting Photoshop (and the rest of the suite) from them these days.
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      Textbook rent-seeking is convincing a government official to make it law that people use your service. Rent-seeking isn't "charging rent" or "charging a subscription".

tombert 2y ago

I don't really think it's that hard at all. When I discovered Flash I was a literal child (12 years old), so it's not like I was reading license agreements regardless, but even if I were an adult, I could still enjoy the software simply because it's fun to use. I certainly don't have many nice things to say about Adobe as a company, I hate that they moved to a subscription model, and I hate that they didn't open source Flash Player, guaranteeing an expiration date on the tech, but that really doesn't detract from how much I really enjoyed using the software.